part of his method deserves general imitation. He was careful to
instruct his scholars in religion. Every Sunday was spent upon
theology, of which he dictated a short system, gathered from the
writers that were then fashionable in the Dutch universities.

He set his pupils an example of hard study and spare diet; only now
and then he allowed himself to pass a day of festivity and
indulgence with some gay gentlemen of Gray's Inn.

He now began to engage in the controversies of the times, and lent
his breath to blow the flames of contention. In 1641 he published a
treatise of Reformation in two books, against the Established
Church, being willing to help the Puritans, who were, he says,
"inferior to the Prelates in learning."

Hall, Bishop of Norwich, had published an Humble Remonstrance, in
defence of Episcopacy; to which, in 1641, five ministers, of whose
names the first letters made the celebrated word Smectymnuus, gave
their answer. Of this answer a confutation was attempted by the
learned Usher; and to the confutation Milton published a reply,
entitled, "Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and whether it may be deduced
from the Apostolical Times, by virtue of those Testimonies which are
alleged to that purpose in some late Treatises, one whereof goes
under the Name of James, Lord Bishop of Armagh."

I have transcribed this title to show, by his contemptuous mention
of Usher, that he had now adopted the Puritanical savageness of
manners. His next work was, "The Reason of Church Government urged
against Prelacy," by Mr. John Milton, 1642. In this book he
discovers, not with ostentatious exultation, but with calm